AniFest ’08 To Showcase

The Art Of Computer Animation

DANBURY — For the past six years, WestConn has shared the pioneering innovations of computer animation in a public festival that each spring attracts participants from around the nation to learn the latest graphics applications and celebrate the exuberant artistic creativity of animated film shorts.

In April the WCSU Center for Graphics Research (CGR) will take its seventh annual festival, AniFest ’08, to the next level, staging an expanded five-day program that seeks to extend its teaching outreach to schools throughout the greater Danbury area.

CGR Director and Professor of Computer Science Dr William Joel has promised the festival will retain all of the features that have contributed to its success as a forum for exchange of ideas and information on graphics applications, and as a showplace for original animation shorts created and produced by students at WestConn and other colleges nationwide.

The festival schedule will be extended to five days – April 21-25 – up from three days previously, to accommodate the addition of AniFest workshops designed to provide middle and high school teachers with a broad range of information about how graphics and animation tools can be applied in the classroom and inspire artistic creativity.

“These daylong workshops will cover all areas of animation — acting for animation, the mathematics of animation, story development, graphic techniques and other areas,” said Dr Joel. “It’s more than just teaching, it’s about the other elements of animation as well.”

The first three days of AniFest ’08, April 21-23, will feature continuous showings of shorts from the festival’s computer animation competition, which has grown each year in popularity and participation by student animators at colleges across the United States. Other festival events will include an evening talk on animation art and techniques by a representative of BlueSky Studio and an “Art of Animation” exhibition in the Student Center displaying posters, art works and other presentations by student animators.

“Every year it’s been better and better,” Dr Joel said. “Last year the student competition drew three to four times as many submissions as the previous year. The students’ animation shorts play continuously throughout the day in the Student Center Theater, and you may visit anytime during the festival to enjoy them.”

Admission to all AniFest ’08 programs will be free and the public is invited. Pre-registrations are required for the teacher workshops; information is available online at cs.wcsu.edu/cgr/festival08 or by email request to Dr Joel at JoelW@wcsu.edu.